Witless Protection rip The Rangers hitters weighed in with their opinions on Chien Ming Wang’s start to the NY Post:
“He was throwing the ball OK, but he has trouble with the ball up, and I knew if I waited, I’d get one up,” Cruz said. “When I’ve faced him before, he’s usually better at making the ball go down in the strike zone. I don’t know. . . . I guess he’s just not back to that yet.”
“I thought he was actually pretty good,” said Michael Young, who went 1-for-3 with an infield hit against Wang. “I actually told [Mark Teixeira] that when I got to first base.”
“I thought he had good life down in the zone,” Young said. “The tough part about it is we’ve only seen him when he’s been good. We didn’t see him earlier in the year when supposedly he was trying to get healthy. We saw him out of the pen [last time] and he looked great, and today he was strong again. He was getting some ground balls. The only thing I hit was right into the ground.”
But while Wang got eight outs on groundballs (against just one in the air, and five Ks), he still hasn’t returned to the form the Yankees would like him to have.
Hackers movie download “It’s not what we’re used to seeing,” Texas manager Ron Washington said. “I’m quite sure there are some things that he’s working on. But there were times when that good sinker was there and when he threw the ball well over the plate.”
I thought that Wang made plenty of progress, but his location was still off on his sinker in the latter innings. As Washington said, there were times where he looked like himself, as he notched 13 of his 14 outs by groundout or strikeout (8 GO/1 AO, 5 K’s). Being that he looked great at the start and then got progressively worse, you could make the argument that he had stamina problems, which caused his location problems in the 3rd and 4th innings. Either way, I saw enough progress to merit a few more starts before I give up and stick him back in the bullpen to figure things out.
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One Response to The Rangers On Wang
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TIQ IQ
You can’t take the entire off season and do nothing and expect to be the same pitcher.
Not if your name is Wang or if it’s Oliver Perez.If you’re not in shape you can’t compete against players who are in top shape.
I’d say Wang will get there in another 2-3 weeks or so if he doesn’t breakdown further by not having been in top shape in the first place.Worst case he’ll be a better pitcher next season.
Hope Yankees understand that and don’t unload him.
I wouldn’t want Pavano back but he is showing what can happen when you’re 100% heathy in top physical shape and in case not drinking hard every night.